Sometimes when I sit down to write for this blog, there is a moment where I pivot from doing all the things that precede writing (setting up my desk at the library, sending a text, logging into my web editor, setting a timer) into the downward pass of writing. Some days I know somewhat the trajectory before I sit down to work, but many days it's all fog. But as I settle in, I get a back slap that propels me to start typing. It says, "Worry about what to say after you read what you have said." This push is so automatic to me these days, that it is only today that I remember that this diving into the fog on the regular is something I developed when I was still in high school.

It's been a trying couple of weeks, and I took a little respite from writing here, so that I could accept what the coming four years in America are going to look like. But at some point you must relinquish feeling betrayed by the things you cannot control, no matter how ugly they are and looming they feel. I have rearranged my budget so that I can donate $100 a month to organizations that will fight the dismantling of human and planetary rights. I may attend the march on the inauguration. I plan to become more involved in politics than I ever imagined for myself. But after that, it's just about getting on with things. Especially because it is hard.